I arrived in Israel in 1972 when many young families, with little hope for their future, were running away from apartheid South Africa. During my first years in Israel, I was busy learning Hebrew, adjusting, having another baby, getting divorced and thereafter, rebuilding myself which included acquiring a new profession. I acquired a degree in clinical Social Work with a speciality in Family and Couple Therapy, and have been working within this profession for the past 40 years; first as part of a private institute of family therapy, where I both practiced, taught and trained others and later until today, in a private practice from home. Today I meet mainly with bereaved persons referred to me by the ministry of defence.
My profession furthermore, enabled me to participate on a voluntary basis, in various forums which encourage dialogue and interaction between Israeli Arab & Jewish citizens as well as pursuing the same goals with Palestinians from the occupied territories. That work has been very important to me, since I often found myself feeling as I had felt in South Africa (back in the 1960’s) – belonging to a privileged minority with not enough active concern for the other citizens in my country. And as the years moved on, and the occupation continued with no progress toward reaching a solution, my feelings of frustration and helplessness grew stronger.
And then, just 6 years ago and once again in an unnecessary military operation – Operation Protective Edge in Gaza – Women Wage Peace came into being, thanks to the worried mothers who began connecting with one another via Facebook. “Enough, we have to do something” said they, and for sure they did indeed. Today Women Wage Peace has a membership of thousands of people, including men. I signed on the moment I heard about them, although admittedly, did not become actively involved until approximately 3 years ago, when I discovered the protests at intersections all over the country. This, I felt, was something I could do, and so I joined the protest near my then home, on the border of Herzliya and Ramat Hasharon.
In the summer of 2018 I moved to Modiin-Maccabim-Reut, where both my daughters and their families reside. Here I met and was embraced by a large group of super active and involved women, much younger than myself, yet so very encouraging. I began to participate regularly in the Shilat intersection demonstrations and to attend any event to which I was invited as part of the Modiin Women Wage Peace. What I have found truly inspiring is the close relationship which these women have formed with the Arab members of the organization in both Ramle & Lod. For the first time in almost 50 years in Israel, I am meeting freely and as equals, with this discriminated against part of our citizenry, one of whom recently received a well-earned national prize for her contributions. In addition, several of the organizing women have befriended me and I am learning more about the widespread work that is being done by Women Wage Peace – from putting pressure on our government via weekly meetings with members of the Knesset to continue working toward a peaceful solution instead of ignoring the problem and also to insist upon bringing women into security committees as was voted in bill 1325 of UNO, supporting the Gaza edge population, creating partnerships with women in the West Bank and Gaza who are also trying to push for a peaceful agreement and more.
I found myself so inspired by these women, and noticing that very few of a sizeable Anglo Saxon community were involved, wrote an article for the English Speaking Organization, ESRA’s Journal. This can be located in the following link: https://magazine.esra.org.il/esramagazine/popular-categories/all-articles/entry/women-standing-shoulder-to-shoulder.html I feel honoured to have been asked to write about my involvement in this inspiring organization. Frankly I think that it is worthy of official recognition by our President.
